A news giant and one of my heroes died today at 92. Walter was the epitome of professionalism, thoroughness and accuracy. The article below (which I wrote several months ago during the presidential campaign) is still valid today and an era of broadcast news has passed with Walter’s death. He was “the most trusted man in America” for most of my life and the country has lost a man of immense stature and honesty….a man with true American values. I am sad, “and that’s the way it is….” Goodnight Walter.
Enough!
News agencies and news reporters are supposed to report the news. In my view, that should be done in a professional unbiased and non-partisan way. I have been an avid consumer of news TV for more years than I would readily admit. I have enjoyed the work of the news giants who, without needing to hear their surname, are immediately recognized as giants of professional and unbiased journalism. I have enjoyed nightly communion with Chet, David, Charles, Bernie, Walter, Dan, Tom, Barbara, Tim, Connie, Peter, Bill, Edward, Harry and Ernie to name just a few!
I have enjoyed the network news on all three major networks, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC etc. for many years, but I don’t enjoy them any more. I watch daily flipping from station to station in the vain hope of finding a network that will report the news without the totally vain need of the reporters to participate in the story rather than to relate it. Guests are now partisan and selected to reinforce the views of the station or the moderator. Moderators are on such a time limit that very little intelligent discussion is possible. Everyone talks too fast, says too little, supports their party or cause and relates almost no information that could possibly stimulate any intelligent thought by the viewer….sounds very much like Congress doesn’t it?
Anchors and shows who were originally fun to watch on all of the news networks; Chris, Keith, Bill, Wolf, Lou (now there is a pinnacle of objective news reporting), Katie, Anderson (whatever happened to Anderson’s predecessor…he was enjoyable), etc…..I still sometimes enjoy Larry King…..have become opinionated, aggressive, ugly inquisitors rather than presenters of the facts.
The right of the audience to know does not include opinions of journalists who speculate, intimidate, argue, interrupt, berate and otherwise throw tantrums, snicker, scoff and sniffle through their newscasts!
I say, enough! I yearn for the facts without the garbage. The new young news reporters like Rachel are copying and becoming clones of Keith etc. to the point of mannerisms! The whole thing is ridiculous! Keith has decided that Don Quixote, raging against George Bush is appropriate for the audience of Countdown. Right or wrong, factually, these news anchors should take a careful look in the mirror. They are brilliant people, but they may be appealing to a young confrontational generation of video game playing non-thinkers (but I doubt even that); however, those of us who want to form an opinion about what is taking place in our world are driven to CSPAN and other stations that simply do not report anything…they just show the proceedings! What a shame! What a disintegration of a formerly informative professional representative of American values and facts. I lament our society at times!
Thank you, Bernie Shaw (former news anchor of CNN). When asked just now during an interview with Wolf Blitzer…”How do you think the news media is doing in reporting the presidential campaign?” …he explained in a few sentences the following points:
1) He was a traditional news reporter in the tradition of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.
2) The news anchors are supposed to report the news.
3) Many of today’s reporters report the news out of one side of their mouth and comment their opinions out of the other side of their mouth.
4) A news reporter is allowed to have an opinion but it should be a candid one and not reported to the public as the news….in other words, the anchor should not be a participant in the story.
Thank you, thank you, thank you….I’m sorry you retired!